“Expressing your contempt about airport procedures — that’s a First Amendment-protected right,” said Michael German, a former FBI agent who now works as legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “We all have the right to express our views, and particularly in a situation where the government is demanding the ability to search you.”

“It’s circular reasoning where, you know, I’m going to ask someone to surrender their rights; if they refuse, that’s evidence that I need to take their rights away from them. And it’s simply inappropriate,” he said.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

“Inappropriate” is hardly the fucking word I would use.

And hey, look! The rumor was true after all! Anyone who thinks this is wrong is now a domestic extremist!

If you’re East Coast-based and wonder why I don’t come to sign books anymore, it’s not that I’ve been ignoring you – I love the US and miss my trips there, I’ve just been busy here.

To make up for it, I’ll be in New York at the end of the summer (September 17-21), signing copies of ‘The Memory Of Blood’ and anything else you want to drag along in a plastic bag and force me to sign.

This blog has a superpower, Chris, that I’ve already used more than once: Scheduled Posts.

These days, a company rarely gets to “own” a channel anymore. (And as consumer/users, we shouldn’t want them to). Apple and Amazon have pulled it off. Twitter has also. Facebook has, to a degree.

The thing is, monopolies are against Nature. I’ll keep repeating that, I’ll keep spitting in the wind of arguments such as Rex’s.

It’s just not possible for one company to provide everything everyone needs.

People once thought that was possible with governments. Hence the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and its bastard afterbirth, Communism.

Where is that U.S.S.R. today?

What is the state of China today after loosening its tight monopolistic State grip?

The iTunes/App Store is unsustainable.

Amazon has a temporary advantage only because no competitor has arisen to address the current deficiencies in writers getting their books to readers (some of these “deficiencies” are actually monopolistic lockouts by companies).

The existence of the Internet should be the biggest reproach against this thinking.

How can you daily use system that follows the laws of Nature while making posts that argue against Nature?